Adherents.com: Religious Groups in Literature

34,420 citations from literature (mostly science fiction and fantasy) referring to real churches, religious groups, tribes, etc. [This database is for literary research only. It is not intended as a source of information about religion.]

"'Ai yaa takwa!' It was only on Zuni that the Savage could adequately express what he felt about the Arch-Community-Songster. 'Hani!' he added as an afterthought; and then (with what derisive ferocity!); 'Sons eso tse-na.' And he spat on the ground... " [More about this character, not in DB. See also pg. 178-179, 251.]

"I see another objection. You know the classification of cultures into 'Apollonian' and 'Dionysian.' "

"I know in general. "

"Well, it seems to me that even Zuni culture would be called 'Dionysian' on Mars. You've been there--but I've been talking with Mike. That boy was raised in an Apollonian culture--such cultures are not aggressive. "

"Then Father Tom Zurvan strode into the room as if the Red Sea was parting before him. His waist-long auburn hair waved wildly like a nest of angry vipers. Painted on his forehead was a big orange S, which stood for 'Symbol.' Bright blue was daubed on the end of his nose... His ID disc bore a flattened figure eight lying on its side and slightly open at one end. The symbol for a broken eternity... " [This main character, Tom Zurvan, is named, of course, in reference to the Persian god Zurvan.]

[Fictional table: "Area and Population of the Worlds ", showing figures for (est. millions) for 1900, 1950, 2000, 2050, 2075. Source is given as "Rand McNally & Co. "]

miscellaneous regional info

Alberta

1989

Wilson, Robert Charles. Gypsies. New York: Doubleday (1989); pg. 21.

"Michael had seen him for the first time when he was ten years old. They were driving cross-country and they had stopped at a gas station along the highway somewhere out in Alberta. A hot day, car windows down, nothing but blank space and blue horizon and this shanty filling station, some old guy pumping gas, and in the shade of the plankboard souvenir store, obscure amidst all this clutter and dust: the Gray Man. " [More of this scene in Alberta, pg. 21-22.]

"Jean-Luc merely grunted. He knew that Alkalurops Beta II was a sparsely populated colony world, home to a human population of only five million. A very few Vulcans lived there, too, in one small community, and a sprinkling of other aliens owned businesses in the larger towns. "

[Fictional table: "Area and Population of the Worlds ", showing figures for (est. millions) for 1900, 1950, 2000, 2050, 2075. Source is given as "Rand McNally & Co. "] [For the year 1900, the population of Antarctica is indicated simply by a horizontal line, meaning zero or negligible population.]

[Fictional table: "Area and Population of the Worlds ", showing figures for (est. millions) for 1900, 1950, 2000, 2050, 2075. Source is given as "Rand McNally & Co. "] [For the year 1950, the population of Antarctica is indicated simply by a horizontal line, meaning zero or negligible population.]

[Fictional table: "Area and Population of the Worlds ", showing figures for (est. millions) for 1900, 1950, 2000, 2050, 2075. Source is given as "Rand McNally & Co. "] [For the year 2000, the population of Antarctica is given as ">0.1 ", or less than 0.1 million, i.e., less than 100,000.]

"'They're picking up no lights from Australia... But a tremendous concentration from Southeast Asia and from the region of the Gobi Desert. The greatest concentrations yet. And all throughout China. But none in Japan.' "

miscellaneous regional info

Asteroid Belt

2900

McCaffrey, Anne. Dragonsdawn. New York: Ballantine (1988); pg. 155.

"She had even toyed with the challenge of navigating mining ships within the Belts until the Roosevelt Dome had exploeded for no apparent reason, killing all but a handful of the ten thousand inhabitants. "

"And even Old Original Australia, somewhere here on Earth, had lost its openness and freedom in order to become the single giant city-complex of Aojou Nanbien. It must, Rod thought with horror, have been a thousand times the size of this city of Earthport. (He was wrong, because it was one hundred fifty thousand times the size of Earthport before it died. Earthport had only about two hundred thousand permanent residents when Rod visited it... but Australia--under the name of Aojou Nanbien--had reached a population of thirty billion before it died, and before the Wild Ones and the Menschenjager had set to work killing off the survivors.) "

"Next morning it landed -- on Australia... There it sat, covering the whole of Australia, its tail trailing away over Tasmania into the sea, its foreclaws on the headlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. "

miscellaneous regional info

Axis City

2100

Bear, Greg. Eon. New York: Bluejay (1985); pg. 271.

"'One hundred million humans occupy city and the Way. Ten million live off-city, along the Way, chiefly traders and coordinators of the five hundred and seventy-one active wells. Ninety million live in the Axis City. Of these, seventy million are in City Memory. Most of those have lived out their legal two incarnations and have retired their bodies to exist as personality patterns in the City Memory environment. Under special circumstances, they may be assigned new bodies, but most often they are content in Memory. Some five million deviant personalities--those who are incomplete or deranged in such a way they cannot be redeemed, even with extreme methods of therapy--are kept inactive.'

'People don't die?' Carrolson asked.

'Death and dying here usually refer to loss of corporeal states, not mental states. In a word, no, or very rarely,' "

Keller tasted the suggestion. 'Nah, Belle Terre doesn't intend to be a colony any longer than it can get away with. Governor Pardonnet's got some big ideas about planetary autonomy. He wants full-fledged Federation membership as soon as he can qualify for it.'

[Year estimated.] Pg. 55: "Now let me tell you about Dismal, the only habitable world in the Betelgeuse system. "; Pg. 61: "The evacuation was methodical and impressive. t the end of two weeks there were a quarter million people on Dismal. Then the big ship began to arrive, and at the end of the third week there were 150,000 remaining. The rest of the big vessels showed up then, and some of the first ones made it back for a second load. By the middle of the fourth week, there were 75,000, and by the end of it, there was hardly anybody left. "

miscellaneous regional info

Bhutan

2200

Bell, M. Shayne. Nicoji. New York: Baen (1991); pg. 144.

"I kept wishing I hadn't thrown that rock. Never drill for oil, the Bhutanese said, meaning that if no on noticed you, you might get to live in peace. "

"SUMMARY A case is presented for the interpretation of cross-economic relationships in a Bolivian mountain village as a manifestation of Mergendahler's Syndrome with the energising factors deweighted by religious, nutritional and "

miscellaneous regional info

Brazil

1999

Sagan, Carl. Contact. New York: Simon & Schuster (1985); pg. 222.

"The diagrams were published in an eight-volume 'coffee table' book set that was soon reprinted worldwide. All over the planet people tried to figure out the pictures... An angel revealed the meaning of the Message and the diagrams to a Brazilian businessman, who distributed--at first, at his own expense--his interpretation worldwide. "

This novel takes place almost entirely in Brazil. From book jacket: "In the near future, Brazil is on the verge of becoming a legitimate space power. But their first manned launch goes horribly wrong... "; Pg. 140: "'...Take Brazil. Odd mix of what Mama called 'hoodoo,' and Catholicism, and Victorian table-rapping...' "

"Brunei Town the sultanate's capital, had a hundred thousand citizens: Malays, Chinese, Ibans, Dayaks, and a sprinkling of Europeans. But it was a city under a hush. No cars. No airport. No television. From a distance it reminded Turner of an old Western fairy tale... "

"The Byzantines were not basically a strict folk--besides their passionate religion and passionate sense for beauty, they had as much bustling get-up-and-go, as much inborn gusto, as Levantines in any era--but their upper classes set store by ceremonious politeness "

"'Out of 1.7 billion people living in coastal California, am I the only one who still likes to go to the beach?...' "

miscellaneous regional info

California: Los Angeles

1000 C.E.

Murphy, Pat. The Falling Woman. New York: Tor (1986); pg. 125.

"And a Mayan who ignored the dictates of the gods and decided to behave as he pleased would be as mad, relative to his society, as a resident of Los Angeles who ignored the traffic regulations and decided to drive as he pleased. "

"Angelo raised an eyebrow. 'California? No kidding? I'm from California too. What part?'

'San Diego. You?'

'L.A.' He felt his momentary elation fading. 'One of your better neighborhoods, where we had the Chicano gangs, the Asian gangs, the black gangs, and white gangs. Your basic United Nations with Glock 17s...' "

"Beneath the academy's crumbling dome, Jaria stands within the arc of statues, exactly where I had intended to end my life--exactly where he had found me a thousand years hence--among the greatest explorers and scientists. Here are Gagarin, Glenn, and Armstrong in their ancient space helmets; Einstein, Cochrane, and Daystrom; Halsey, Kirk, and Riker: sentries of a time forever lost.

'What petty temple is this, Father Data,' Jaris says, 'that so many should have to share a single, shabby roof?' He laughs again, the forced and tinny laughter of simulated emotion. 'Your father's--now that's a temple!'

Noonien Soong is notably absent from this pantheon... Soong's peculiar morality had piped the direction for his Children, and had excluded him from this distinguished company, even after his death. I feel only shame in the monument that the Children have erected on Omicron Theta to their honored creator. "

[Fictional table: "Area and Population of the Worlds ", showing population figures ( "actual numbers ") for the year 2075. Source is given as "Rand McNally & Co. " In addition to population estimates for all continents, four off-Earth locations are listed: Cislunar space, Moon, Mars, and Novysibirsk.]

"'Appendixes: Social Relationships in the Commonwealth "; "So far as can be determined from the manuscripts, the society of the Commonwealth appears to consist of seven basic groups... exultant... carries the administration of day-to-day affairs. Its hereditary assumption of power... armigers seem much like exultants, though on a lesser scale... could be likened to... samurai who serve the daimyos of feudal Japan... optimates appear [are]... wealthy traders... As in every society, the commonality constitute the vast bulk of the population. Generally content with their lot, ignorant... Surrounding the Autarch... are the servants of the throne. They are his administrators and advisors, both in military and civil life... drawn from the commonality... The religious... appear to be members of various orders, but... subject to no uniting authority... Lastly, the cacogens represent... that foreign element... "

[On Deep Space Nine.] "Deanna Troi had only just reached the Promenade when the station went to red alert. Although she was usually fine with her defenses, the mass emotional response to the alarm signal and flashing panels was incredibly loud, solid and fast--there were something like 7500 people on board--and she felt herself tensing... "

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